


Maybe They Weren't Such Good Old Days

by Silvex



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Child Demon Tamers, Female Protagonist, Gen, Newbie has a name, a name was kinda necessary, and being a kid, bad things happen, due to the presence of outside perspectives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:34:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28398531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvex/pseuds/Silvex
Summary: Small children should probably not be allowed COMPs, particularly not those with the Demon Summoning Program. Does this stop kids from acquiring COMPs? Of course not.And if some of those kids happen to survive, well... they can consider it good practice for when they're older.AU where some of the Liberators once spent a week trapped in the Yamanote circle, and actually came out surprisingly well-adjusted, all things considered.
Kudos: 11





	1. Day One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three kids get demons.
> 
> This is, presumably, a very strange thing.

If someone were to ask Taro how he thinks his life would end, it isn't getting frozen to death by a tiny, adorable snowman. Mostly because when he met said tiny, adorable snowman, he'd managed to knock him out by throwing a pair of headphones at it, and then suddenly it's his new best friend.

Except not really, that role goes to a girl with a green dog with wings, who had apparently gotten him on her side by sharing the last remnants of her cookie jar after she broke it over his head. "Should you be giving dogs cookies?" Taro finds himself asking, despite how, given that this dog breaths fire, chances were it wouldn't be hurt by human food the same way as regular animals.

The dog barks out a laugh. "I'm a demon. I don't have to worry about food poisoning from a human child. Especially not Nagisa. She couldn't hurt a fly!"

The girl- Nagisa- crosses her arms. "Be nice, Cu."

"Why should I? Didn't you hear me say that I'm a demon?"

"If you're mean, I won't give you any more snacks."

"You have snacks, ho?" Jack Frost asks, hopping up onto Taro's shoulder. It feels sort of nice having him there, as a sort of shield against the summer heat.

She nods. "Mom and Dad wanted me to have something to eat until the new apartment in Kyoto was ready. They said it was enough for a month, and I'm supposed to leave in a week, so..." Taro, Jack Frost, and Cu Sith all give her questioning glances. "They're... kinda paranoid. They might have had a point. Um... so, your demon uses ice, right?"

"I... guess." He hasn't had much time to think about Jack Frost, because he'd only met Jack Frost half an hour ago.

"...Do you want ice cream? The freezer at home sorta doesn't work anymore..."

(Over a decade later, Megakin will ask Newbie if she ever stopped using food to try and make new friends. She'll roll her eyes and point out that his idea of making friends apparently no longer involves telling them his real name. It's an argument that will never truly have a victor.)

* * *

In all honesty, Taro's glad to make friends with this girl, because his parents left him with just enough food for the three days they'd be gone, and they were supposed to get back this morning. They haven't showed up yet, and given that demons have started showing up all around town, he's not sure they're going to be back anytime in the near future. Jack Frost manages to save most of the contents of her freezer for the time being, but the four of them still end up demolishing a tub of chocolate ice cream just because they can.

If he ignores the whole demon invasion picture, this is actually kind of fun. Just him, and a new friend, and their new friends, sitting in the dark and eating sweets. But the lights aren't on in the apartment, and people are starting to panic outside, and the freezer is literally encased in ice.

Also, there's the fact that, to get here, they had to beat up a whole three groups of demons despite just trying to get down the street and up into the building. There's been something perched on the fire escape since said building first came into sight and none of them really want to poke at it, even if the kids can use magic now.

Which, yeah, that's a thing. Taro can make himself faster now. It's actually pretty cool.

"Do you think the power's out for everyone else, too?" He asks. "I mean, my building doesn't have anything, either, and it's..." He doesn't want to admit that he's maybe wandered a bit farther away from home than he should have, even to someone who probably knows that just by virtue of having set off down a busy city street in search of a demon with ice magic.

Nagisa shrugs. "Maybe. It makes sense. Even more then..." She gestures at the space above his head, where, if he looks up, he can see the floating red number six. There's a message on the game device he found that tries to explain it, but he doesn't particularly like thinking about that.

He wonders if this girl got the same message at any point. If she knows what it means for them.

He doesn't ask.

(Megakin will freely admit, once they're both adults, that the reason he let Newbie be the party leader back then was because he didn't want to think about the fact that they were probably all going to die. She'll grumble at him about it, particularly since she'll have found, by that point, that she vastly prefers it when he's the leader, but there won't be any hard feelings, either. After all, they're adults, and the Death Clocks have been gone for years. No point getting mad about it anymore.)

* * *

Rika meets Ririn because neither of them have parents who are very happy with the whole lockdown situation, and they're getting together with a bunch of other people to complain about it. Rika follows Ririn to go exploring because she's bored, and nobody misses people as small as they are slipping away in a crowd.

Rika almost gets Ririn killed because she finds a game device on the ground, and a small creature made of sandbags jumps out of it and tries to attack them. It can't even be a cool one with guns, it has to be a thing even smaller than them with a pointy stick.

Luckily, it's not a powerful creature, and together the two girls manage to upend a trash can onto it, but the point still stands that it was terrifying.

And then the creature suddenly pledges loyalty to them. "I'm Mokoi," It says. "Which one of you summoned me?"

Rika glances down at the COMP in her hands. "I think... that was me." She's summoned a demon and gotten attacked by it. Her parents are going to kill her.

"Right! Then I guess we'll be friends!" And then, suddenly, everything isn't the same. It can't be, because now Rika has a demon following her every command, and now she sort of wishes Mokoi came with guns, because that'd be so much cooler.

Sure, he'd probably have killed her if that was the case, but a girl can dream. It'd definitely be a more interesting thing to get than a creature made of sandbags and numbers over everyone's heads.

(Years later, Eileen will ask those of them that had demons during the Lockdown to describe the Death Clocks to her, so she can more accurately represent it in the novel she's writing. Templar Dragon and Megakin will both attempt to explain that they didn't actually see them that much, because they weren't party leaders and the rules of the Demon Summoning Program are something they'll never quite understand, particularly when the app they now use shares so little in common with it. Newbie just says she isn't comfortable with talking about it, and the conversation ends there.)

* * *

In all honesty, they should go back to their parents after that. They should.

The problem is, they can't find them. Tokyo's a big place, and it's really easy to get lost in it, and by the end of the day, Rika's encountered enough demons to have enough Macca to buy out a couple of auctions, except that there's someone else called Kazuya who's doing it before she can.

At least no one managed to buy out the store that sells hand-chargers for gaming devices. Rika takes two, just in case something happens to the first one, and hopes that anyone who wants to take them will be deterred by something as small as Mokoi. These are her chargers, and she doesn't want anything happening to them.

"Don't worry," Her partner reassures her. "Anyone tries to touch your stuff, they're dead meat." At his words, perhaps there are a few people around Tokyo whose Death Clocks tick down. But probably not. Rika hasn't seen one of those change yet, and she's not sure that she ever will. After all, if the numbers say that something will happen, it'll happen, right?

Ririn blinks. "Um... do you really mean that, or...?"

"Haven't decided yet."

Rika sighs, and without warning, dismisses Mokoi for the time being. She doesn't want to deal with this right now.

Or ever. She just wants her parents, really, except she can't find her way back to them. Maybe it'll be easier once Kazuya stops buying up all the Waira and Moh Shuvuu he can get his hands on. Or maybe it'll make things harder, since one thing she's learned this past afternoon is that people give you odd looks if you walk around with your demons out.

Or maybe it's just that they aren't used to seeing demons yet. Or maybe her parents will be more mad she has a demon than that she wandered off. She doesn't know, and it's sort of exhilarating. And terrifying. But that bits overruled by having to spend the night in an unfamiliar place with a girl she barely knows while trusting everything to, of all creatures, Mokoi. Terror has sort of become her new normal.

She'll just have to hope that things calm down soon.

(When Templar Dragon retells the story years later, Mokoi will cackle. "How'd that turn out for you?" She'll point out that, after a week, she then went an entire decade without having to deal with him, and Mokoi shuts up. None of the others will know how to respond to that, but then, they mostly get along with their demons. Even if two of them tried to kill their summoners at first.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I shouldn't be doing this, but at this point it's too late. The idea has taken hold.
> 
> I'm not sure if I'll give anyone besides these three COMPs or not, but if they do, their first summons will probably have to be a bit more humble than what they come into your party with. That or they get them on the Fifth Day or so.
> 
> Newbie's name is the one that I got by hitting the randomize option a few times when starting my game, so that's what I'm going with. Mostly because I needed one for what I want to do here.


	2. Day Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start being a bit more visibly bad.

When Rika and Ririn wake up the next morning, they silently agree not to ask Mokoi why the ground around them seems slightly more red than it was when they fell asleep. They think they'll be able to try finding their way back again now that it's light out, which is good because it's been a day since either of them have eaten anything.

Rika's not sure how much food there'll be once she gets home- she can't remember the last time anyone brought back groceries- but she's just spent a night sleeping in a shady back alley with only a demon to keep her safe, so at this point she'll take what she can get. If only because she gets the feeling she won't be able to just get a train back to Kudanshita.

"Good! You're awake!" Mokoi crosses his arms with a cackle. "I was getting bored without you! But don't worry, I found some fun!" Rika determinedly ignores how the blade on his hand also seems a lot more red than yesterday.

The numbers above hers and Ririn's heads have decreased by one. With the automatic mail sent to her COMP, it makes sense.

It also makes her sort of wonder what dying will feel like. And if she'll know how it happens, or if she'll be one of those deaths that the Laplace Mail simply glosses over. It's as terrifying and thrilling as everything else has been since the power went out.

It's one of those things that she'll never, ever, tell Ririn about, no matter how many times she begs her to.

"Did anyone try getting near us?" She asks, not wanting to know the answer.

"Yeah, but they were weak. One poke and they just go running off!" It probably wasn't a simple poke. Rika doesn't ask further.

Maybe then she can pretend that it really is just a matter of finding her parents and going home.

(None of them will ever like to think about their demons killing people. Even the ones they will take from others, years later, nobody ever inquires too deeply into. They'll be aware that it's cowardice, but also agree that none of them want it to change. It's the only way they'll ever have to cope with the possibility. If they just never acknowledge it.)

* * *

In all honesty, Nagisa's perfectly aware that, with the food situation, she could technically just sit in a dark apartment and wait for the Lockdown to be lifted. She also really doesn't want to do that. She wants to enjoy the remainder of her time here before she has to move, and she's just not sure she can do that without the sunlight on her face.

Besides. Dogs need walks, and Cu Sith, whatever he might say, is definitely a dog.

"You think people will look at us funny?" Taro asks. She just shrugs, because it's hard to be sure. Maybe people are getting used to demons by now. Maybe they aren't. She'll never know if she doesn't go outside.

"You don't have to come." Sure, her parents will kill her if they find out she's letting a strange boy hang out in their apartment, even if they're about to leave it forever, but she doesn't think they're ever actually going to come back here, anyway, so it'll probably be fine. She hopes.

"And let you get more magic without me?" She's not doing this little expedition for the sake of Skill Crack, but she supposes she can see his point. Every update to the Demon Summoning Program makes it even more complicated, and she barely has the Macca to take advantage of it.

So far, anyway. Nagisa doesn't doubt that, if things go wrong, she'll have more than enough by the end of it.

She isn't worried about dying. Not today. The number above her head is a five, just like most everyone else. And she can get demons from auctions, now, if just the weaker ones that were also available the day before and that fewer people seem to be interested in. Which might be why the number is so high.

She's seen people with less. A good portion of them live in her building. More of them near the station.

She doesn't lie thinking about what'll probably happen to them. The most she has is relief that she and Taro seem to be exceptions. Maybe it's because whatever will happen will be on their walk, when they just happen to miss it. Maybe it'll be because they're holed up in the apartment again, and disaster strikes on the streets.

It's impossible to know for sure. And maybe that's what she's really afraid of.

(In the Liberators HQ, there will be a paper hanging on the wall of 'Things We Don't Miss About the Old Demon Summoning Program.' It'll be a very long list. The Death Clocks will be at the very top. The Laplace Mail will take second place. Another point will be how there were two or three people who bought up all of the good demons from every auction, but that'll be much lower on the list. Auctions aren't the only way to contract with a demon, after all.)

* * *

Shiori isn't a fan of the Shomonkai.

She can't explain why. They're creepy, no question about it, and she's not sure why the adults just don't see it.

Well. She has some idea. Everything's been going weird lately, ever since the afternoon news talked about some guy getting eaten by a wolf in his own apartment. Or something. Her parents didn't let her see the full broadcast, which is a shame because that's the last bit of television she could have possibly watched before the power went out.

So. She sort of gets it. They want someone to get the world to make sense again.

It's just that Shiori wants things to make sense to her, without pushing herself to try and understand all the big, complicated words the adults are using. So she tunes them out and listens for something, anything, that could make a better distraction.

A faint note of music reaches her ears, and that's all she needs.

She doesn't even realize her feet have moved to follow it until where she was before is completely out of sight. From the lack of people calling for her, no one has yet noticed she's gone missing.

(Shionyan will one day mention this tidbit, years down the line. She'll sounds completely disaffected by it, and none of her friends will be able to tell how much of that indifference is real or not. They won't think much of it, though. The Lockdown will never be their favorite topic of conversation.)

* * *

Taro hasn't given much thought to the existence of demon tamers besides himself and Nagisa. By all logic, they must exist- someone's out there clearing out the better things the Devil Auction has to offer every few hours on the dot- but he doesn't ever expect to actually see one.

And yet, there's someone sitting by the side of the road tapping away at a COMP. From the mutterings under his breath, he appears to be struggling to get something out of the auction.

It might be good to wish him luck. He'll need it, with everything that's getting bought out. At this point, Taro's pretty sure that, if he wants a Pyro Jack, he'll have to figure out how to recruit one off the street. Preferably one that isn't constantly droning on about whoever 'Lord Beldr' is. Or wait until stronger demons show up in the auction and get one while everyone else is distracted.

...He'll probably wait around for the second one. It's not like he'll be able to fuse anything impressive in the meantime with his motley collection of Pixies and Orcs. Compared to the ones who wander around fighting demons all the time, he's not exactly spoiled for choice.

Before he can approach this other person, though, Nagisa stops him. "We shouldn't," She says, her voice low. He wants to ask why, but then the next old lady freaks out about them leading around Cu Sith, and they no longer have a choice but to dismiss their demons and rapidly try to explain.

Sure, it doesn't work- she's just convinced they're possessed, now, and they have to run before she breaks out the holy water, where did she even get that- but it still felt like it was worth a try.

That's one of the last times that it really feels like it.

(None of them will ever forget what it's like, to be looked at that way just for having demons. It won't stop them, particularly once no one can see them anymore, but it's why secrecy will become something they're not actively terrible at. They'll know what happens if they tell the wrong person that they summon demons. It's not something they'd ever want for themselves, let alone their friends.)

* * *

There's a pair of Moh Shuvuu that have taken to hunting around one particular fire escape.

Ririn's not sure why. If she were a demon, she could think of much better places to lie in wait for humans than on the top of a fire escape. When she points this out, Mokoi stands to attention.

"Don't give him any ideas," Rika warns. "Not until I've Cracked Dia."

It feels sort of strange, to Ririn, the idea that to be able to heal others first requires the death of a healer. "Do those two have it?"

"Yes. But I don't know which one I'll beat first. Or if you'll defeat it instead." It's not Ririn's fault that, even without being able to summon her own demons, she can still fight others as long as Rika's in the area. She doesn't even know how that whole thing works- it just is.

Besides, all she needs is to be told which one not to attack. It isn't exactly rocket science.

They don't even get that far, though, because a couple of older kids come in and steal their kills. "I was going to get Dia from that!" Rika complains.

The girl shrinks away at that, while the boy shrugs. "Didn't exactly have your name on it."

Ririn isn't sure how this ends with the two of them being invited to the girl's apartment for muffins. But everything's been going crazy since the power went out, so she figures she's just going to roll with it until she sees her parents again.

All she has to do is pretend that she isn't jealous of all of them having demons, and actual magic, and all of the things they can probably do with them, and she's sure it'll be just fine.

(Half of the ideas she has won't even pan out once she has demons, anyway. She'll keep thinking of ideas, figure out that they don't work, and then circle back around again. Some of those failed ideas make fun concepts to write about, though, so she won't feel too bad about it. Either way, she'll get something out of the attempt.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Devil Auction habits are probably not something to be emulated unless you have more Macca than you know what to do with or you're trying to fill out the whole Compendium. You have been warned.
> 
> Skill Cracks are one of those things you don't really imagine people fighting over a lot... but it makes sense that people would fight over them. A lot.


End file.
